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ensure that your regular meetings are marked by the wisdom and fraternal

charity necessary to support one another and to engage with both the joys

and the particular difficulties which mark the lives of your people. I pray

that the aspirations of the Christians of Jerusalem will be understood as

being concordant with the aspirations of all its inhabitants, whatever their

religion: a life of religious freedom and peaceful coexistence and - for young

people in particular - unimpeded access to education and employment, the

prospect of suitable housing and family residency, and the chance to benefit

from and contribute to economic stability.

Your Beatitude, I thank you again for your kindness in inviting me here,

together with the other guests. Upon each of you and the communities you

represent, I invoke an abundance of God's blessings of fortitude and wisdom!

May you all be strengthened by the hope of Christ which does not disappoint!

XV

In visitatione Basilicae Sancti Sepulcri.*

Dear Friends in Christ,

The hymn of praise which we have just sung unites us with the angelic

hosts and the Church of every time and place - "the glorious company of the

apostles, the noble fellowship of the prophets and the white-robed army of

martyrs" - as we give glory to God for the work of our redemption, accom-

plished in the passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before this

Holy Sepulchre, where the Lord "overcame the sting of death and opened the

kingdom of heaven to all believers", I greet all of you in the joy of the Easter

season. I thank Patriarch Fouad Twal and the Custos, Father Pierbattista

Pizzaballa, for their kind greeting. I likewise express my appreciation for the

reception accorded me by the Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church and

the Armenian Apostolic Church. I gratefully acknowledge the presence of

representatives of the other Christian communities in the Holy Land. I greet

Cardinal John Foley, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy

Sepulchre and also the Knights and Ladies of the Order here present, with

gratitude for their unfailing commitment to the support of the Church's

mission in these lands made holy by the Lord's earthly presence.

Saint John's Gospel has left us an evocative account of the visit of Peter

and the Beloved Disciple to the empty tomb on Easter morning. Today, at a

Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 531

* Die 15 Maii 2009.